


when you're here i cannot breathe

by macwithoutcheese



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, dumbass bisexuals are dumb and in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 15:04:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16813054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macwithoutcheese/pseuds/macwithoutcheese
Summary: in which Vex'ahlia is cautious and Keyleth is reckless





	when you're here i cannot breathe

**Author's Note:**

> title from you got love by upstairs open

Keyleth would be shy, but eager. A hurried kiss on Vex's cheek while her own freckled ones flamed, quick but purposeful, pulling back and looking pointedly away but still having the courage to make the move at all.

And Vex, with all her charm and swagger, sentences punctured with winks and liberal use of the word _darling_ , would be completely stunned. Sure she's flirted with Keyleth before, she flirts with everyone, and even though something not quite platonic resonates beneath the casual affection she gives the druid, Keyleth is her friend. Her best friend. One of the handful of people she trusts outside of her brother. But to think that Keyleth, with all her gangly grace and sunny disposition and lithe power and inherent goodness would want anything to do with the selfish morally grey disaster that is Vex'ahlia would be laughable. So Vex would keep the flirting to a casual light hearted sort all while stealing small glances at her, a sort of caution in want that she had not felt in a long time.

And Keyleth would marvel at her, as she had done since their first meeting in the Stilben swamp, though the awe had shifted from an inexperienced desire to match her in skill to one of respect and appreciation and hastily ignored want. Her eyes find their way to the half-elf even in the midst of battle when concentration is key, gaze almost involuntarily raking down the taut muscles in her arms as she pulls back a bowstring, the intense focus in her eyes and sweat on her brow and fluidity of motion as she fires arrow after arrow with deadly precision making something rise in Keyleth's ludicrous heart. Keyleth is a stranger to want but not to daydreams, and that something that she feels is almost akin to the flutter that often overtook her chest when she spent spare moments dreaming of wild romance and a love to sweep her off her feet. But Vex is not her wild love, Vex is not some stranger to be used for indulgent fantasies. Vex'ahlia is her friend. Her best friend. To desire her would be to betray her trust.

But Vex still flirts unbearably and Keyleth still feels her heart race against her ribs and can see her fingers shake when the ranger winks and knows the way her dreams paint Vex are the colors of want. And Keyleth still stammers and Vex calls it her usual social awkwardness, and when the druid finds the courage to flirt back Vex calls it casual affection, calls it a joke, calls it her odd way of practicing.

Keyleth with all her lack of experience in romance slowly accepts acknowledges tries to address that her heart wants Vex. Vex with all her knowledge of lust turns a blind eye and a well placed excuse as the druid grows more bold. Vex'ahlia does all her dodging and Keyleth keeps up her chasing, an unusual shift of pace for the two of them, Vex withdrawing her flirtatious habits and Keyleth slowly picking them up until there's a reoccurring nervous kiss on hands shoulders cheeks and bright flowers tucked in dark braids and a warm presence of intertwined fingertips and a myriad of odd looks from the rest of Vox Machina.

Vax'ildan would call her a fool, ask her if she's blind, tell her that the druid is all but declaring her feelings in a ballad to rival Scanlan, feelings he knows Vex'ahlia reciprocates because she's his sister and he has eyes.

And still it would boil to a point where Keyleth is let down and exasperated and realizing maybe she really has read it wrong and begun to draw away just to be countered with a final genuine second-kiss-of-her-entire-life by the woman who's kept her enraptured for so long and made her question such integral things as desire, a final breaking point for Vex of desperation at the thought of losing that certain closeness with Keyleth.

And it would be like a puzzle falling into place, pieces finally clicking together and a comfort somehow bursting through a pair of racing heartbeats, a dynamic that is only just so different from friendship, a release of tension and a new sort of proximity. And Keyleth would stay shy but eager and in a constant state of marvel at her ranger, and Vex would be full of charm and swagger but only of the genuine sort for her druid.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm only on episode 28 of campaign 1 and this is incredibly indulgent as I've read most of the limited vexleth fics. someone please write more.
> 
> I'm really only proud of the first three paragraphs as I was trying to sleep but they kept plaguing me and I just kept writing. it's 2 am. hope it was decent, even if it's short. 
> 
> yell at me on tumblr @gals-s


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